But the real news, the real mischief, is that a few different union groups are headed to DC for their annual meetings — including the gargantuan yearly gathering of Building Trades Unions. This means that thousands of union members will be descending on Washington — and Capitol Hill — to press for the erosion of democracy in the American workplace. In fact, the Senate Labor Committee plans a hearing on the topic on Tuesday. That’s never good.

A few key points about the bill, in case you’ve been out of town for the last month:

Under current law, unions must collect signed cards from 30% of employees to force a secret ballot election federally supervised by the National Labor Relations Board;

These cards are collected fact-to-face by union organizers, often at the employee’s home;

As a result, some employees who sign cards ultimately do not vote for the union when it comes time for the secret ballot election, since their initial signature was coerced;

The anti-democracy card check bill would bypass the election and just certify the union once cards were collected from 50%+1 of the employees;

Anyone who claims to have been terminated for union activity has an entire federal agency, the NLRB, dedicated to sorting out their claim. As it is, only a tiny percentage of union organizers claim to be wrongfully terminated. A few are actually reinstated by the NLRB;

The anti-democracy card check bill doesn’t give the parties adequate time to reach an agreement but would instead impose mandatory arbitration of terms on the parties after 120 days. This contract would be in effect for 2 years, thus undermining fundamental collective bargaining rights of both parties.

The public overwhelmingly opposes the bill and by large margins says they are less inclined to support any boneheaded elected representative who votes for it.

That’s pretty much all you need to know this week. Oh, and most importantly, click here to weigh in with your Senators. This thing got 241 votes when it passed the House, a testament to the union’s’ grip on the Congress. If they can pass a bill that throws democracy out the window, they can do anything.

Please do your part to stand up for democracy today. Urge your Senators to oppose this idiotic bill.